Is this love?
by dragonheartt
Summary: Set early S3, after E1. Connor's taken a few days off from work at the ARC, and Abby's not sure why, until an anomaly call complicates, and simplifies, things at the same time.


**Title: Is this love?**

AN: so yes I write a lot of conby fics... and I always worry that I'm just rehashing similar stuff but I wanted a little bit of a backstory for him that wasn't what i usually put (generally i go with the whumpiest stuff lol) but anyways, yeahs. Hope you enjoy it, I'm not quite sure about this one either as it's kinda.. mishmashy I think. Wasn't quite sure where I was going besides the back story stuff, but I think it came out well. Also note that this fic isn't related to or in the same primeval universe, so to speak, as my Gravity series-thing. Right.. erm, if you like it, or if you don't, I like feedback :3

* * *

Connor relaxed, nodding his head.

"Fine, 3 days it is. Thanks Lester." The resident geek said with a quick smile that quickly faded again. Lester rolled his eyes, pretending that there wasn't an ounce of real emotion in him, just the same beaurocratic hauteur-man as he'd been at the start of the project. Connor may not have seen the concern in his boss' eyes, but that was a good thing in Lester's opinion. He nodded to the younger man.

"Well, don't you have somewhere to go? Train to catch or some such?" He pointed out cooly, shooing the boy out of his office. Connor turned and exited, taking a long, sweeping glance around the operations room of the ARC before he went down the ramp and out the door. Lester sighed. That one was a disaster walking.

Abby frowned at the note on the fridge, ignoring the tape still stuck on the surface.

_Going out-of-town for a few days. Cleared it with Lester. Probably two or three days, don't wait up for me. And Abbs, be safe. ~ Connor_

"Now I wonder what this is about..." Abby murmured, looking at Rex, who was basking on the window sill in the sunlight. "Do you know anything about this, Rex?" The Courevosaurevus chirped, but whether that was affirmative or negative, she didn't know. Abby sighed, pulling off the tape and throwing it in the garbage, carefully placing Connor's note on the counter. The fact that he'd gotten up probably hours before her, hadn't said a word to her, and apparently had no intentions of telling her where he was or why, bothered her. Not because she didn't trust him, but because she was worried for him. Connor never did things like this. She glanced at the clock, and, with another sigh, got ready to head out to the ARC.

* * *

Connor stepped out of the car and paid the driver, slinging his bag on his back and turning to face the building. It was old in a sort of castle-like way, all grey stone with green tendrils of ivy crawling over the walls, and bits of brick on the front, with that oddly eye-pleasing type of roof that you wouldn't think much of if it wasn't paired with the building it was sat on. On a front porch that reached from one cornerstone to the other sat an old man with some playing cards set out on a table in front of him. Connor quietly walked up the steps, nodded politely to the man, and entered the building. He knew where he was heading as he walked between people and furniture. A room near the back, with lots of sunlight. Connor could feel himself tensing up again as he got closer. He'd rather face a Tyrannosaurus Rex with no weapons whatsoever than go in there, but, unlike with the T-rex situation, he had to be here. He was related to her, after all, even if he wasn't comfortable around her. Connor took a deep breath and stepped into the room. A short woman with greying hair that had once been the same shade of brown as his own, and blue eyes, looked up at him from the bed. This was a nursing home of sorts, out in the countryside and privately owned.

"Hullo mum." He said softly, smiling at her.

* * *

Cutter looked aro*und at Abby's entrance into the ARC, raising his eyebrows as he noted that she was alone. He was leaning against a counter, looking over Sarah's shoulder at some work or other on her computer screen.

"Did Connor not wake up on time again?"

Abby shook her head. "Apparently he got permission from Lester to take a few days off." She said, sighing as she sat down in her chair. "I've no idea where he even went, he won't answer my calls. I was hoping you guys might know, but obviously not."

"Lester gave Connor the day off? Wow." Sarah commented, having already interacted with their acerbic boss once already. Jenny strode into the room then, which made Cutter stop staring at Abby skeptically, as he smiled at the PR woman who looked so much like the woman he'd loved, Claudia.

"Hello Jenny."

"Hello Nick, now why are you all looking at me for? Don't you all have some work to do?" The core team was indeed staring at Jenny Lewis. Great minds think alike, and all that. Sarah grinned at Abby, conspiratorially.

"We were just talking about Lester giving Connor permission to take off from work. You wouldn't happen to know about that, would you?" Abby asked, curious.

"No, I hadn't heard of that until now, actually."

"C'n ye ask Lester for us?" Cutter generally didn't poke into things like this, but it wasn't like Connor to do something like this. He was worried, of course.

"Why would I be inclined to doing that?"

"We're just concerned about Connor, Jen, that's all."

"Yeah, he is my flat mate."

Jenny raised her eyebrows. "Well, while I'm glad you all care about him so much, the point is that despite being your flatmate, Abby, he didn't tell you. Don't you think it's better to respect his decisions? He'll tell you when he gets back, I'm sure."

Abby sighed again, rather irritated with Jenny's logic, and stomped off to her lab in a huff. Jenny glanced at Cutter, who shrugged and turned back to the computer, across which several windows were open about myths and legends and Connor's database, and then she turned and went to talk to her own people about the cover ups for the last few anomalies.

* * *

Connor's mum looked at him in confusion, and his gut clenched. He forced a smile onto his face for her.

"It's me, Connor, mum."

"You're not my Connor! You're all grown up. My son is only a child still!"

"Mum, It is me, can't you recognize me? Try to remember, yeah?"

"Connor, honey, oh! You look just like your dear old da', only your hair's darker. Like mine used to be..."

"C'mon, let's go sit on the porch, mum, is that alright? You have the curtains all closed."

"I like it dark in here. Leave it alone! I'm your mother, you don't tell me what to do!"

"I know, mum, i wasn't telling you to do anything, I was just suggesting that maybe you'd like to sit with me outside? Mr Jonson has a deck of cards out..."

"... You know, you remind me of someone I knew..."

Connor sighed quietly and sat in the chair by the bed. Having a mum with Alzheimer's was terrible. He wanted to fix everything, help her remember, but he could do nothing. And to be forgotten by her so easily... It hurt to stand and talk to this shadow of her and have to contrast her with the mum in his memory - youthful and beautiful, laughing and playing with him and his dad, talking and going places and enjoying life. Then his da' died and apparently it helped to onset her condition, though it had already been in existence. On top of that, he'd had horrible dreams about the car crash which had injured him and killed his father, for years after the event took place.

Guilt tore at him, as if he could have done anything to save his dad or stop this disease from destroying her mind. He was powerless, and that was an uncomfortable thought.

* * *

Abby checked the tranquilizer levels and prepped her pistol, passing one of the cartridges of tranquilizer to Cutter, who had the other gun. The ADD had told them the anomaly was out here, near a nursing home in the middle of a tiny town in the country. Despite how quiet and deserted things seemed at first glance, the team knew there were people and animals here, and furthermore there was an anomaly and possibly an incursion, which together or separately meant the team was to go and deal with it. The SF's came along, and Jenny took to ordering them about with ease, something which obviously irked the new captain. Abby wondered in an absent sort of way what his first name was. Connor'd hacked the files, of course, but there was just a 'Captain H. Becker' on them, and that was unhelpful.

* * *

He had not expected this. The handheld Anomaly detector in his bag had started beeping, and he'd darted out of his mum's room to take a look at it. The anomaly was literally five feet from the nursing home. Wonderful. That meant the ARC team was on its way. Absolutely perfect, he thought sarcastically. A snarl sounded from outside, and a scream, and Connor wasted no time in grabbing whatever came to hand- a fire poker from the fireplace- and rushing outside.

A raptor, different from the ones they had seen before - it was a little larger, being 5 feet if he was right, had feathered arms, and didn't have the blue markings or the same bristles - was outside, snarling and advancing on one of the nurses, a man about Connor's age who, right now, looked absolutely petrified.

"Oi! You with the feathers!" Connor called out loudly, running forwards. He didn't really think about it, just sort of launched himself at the raptor so the other man could get away safely. THe raptor screeched, snapping at him, and Connor jabbed at it with the fire poker in retaliation. "Go! Get inside!" He told Frank, the blonde-haired nurse blinking dazedly. The man seemed to hesitate, but another of those freaky evil-dolphin-laughter calls and Frank nodded before disappearing inside, shutting the door behind him. The raptor lunged and Connor feinted before backing away. He gripped the fire poker tight in his hands and swung it at the creature like a sword. If he could knock it unconscious, then he could probably tie it up and shove it back through the anomaly and get to his hotel before the ARC team arrived. That was the maybe-plan in his head, at least.

He didn't expect something else to arrive, making bugling noises of distress from behind him. He had enough time to notice that the raptor's iconic larger hind claw was considerably smaller than they normally were, before something collided with him. Connor was, himself, knocked unconscious, his body falling to the ground, where he lay on his stomach in the grass.

* * *

The ARC team arrived in front of the building. Apparently the anomaly was at the back, and a few SF's split off to secure that. Jenny headed towards the door of the building when a snarling and bugling accosted their ears. The team rushed past the front door to the side of the nursing home, where a large, quadrupedal dinosaur with a frill and large horns was fighting to get three turkey-sized raptors off it's back. Abby gasped, eyes wide, when she noticed the unmoving body of Connor Temple laying face-down within inches of the dinosaurs.

"Connor!" She breathed, looking to Cutter. He seemed to be dithering as well.

"We need to get him out of there."

"Why isn't he moving?" Becker appeared next to her then, and she turned to him.

"He's unconscious, you dolt." She hissed, glaring.

"Stop fighting you two. Cutter, what should we do?" Jenny asked. They couldn't look away from Connor, repeating like a mantra in their heads the hope that he was okay and that the ceratopsian wouldn't step on him, or the raptors find him easier prey.

Abby shook her head. "We can't just stand here, doing nothing!" She snapped, striding forwards with the pistol raised. Becker reluctantly followed, keeping his rifle aimed at the ground but off of safety, just in case. The Professor and Cutter prefered to keep the creatures alive for various reasons, and he would respect that as long as it didn't mean that Temple would get badly injured or even die.

Cutter followed, raising his own tranq gun.

* * *

The ground was uncomfortable. His head hurt. His arm hurt. What was all that noise? Why did he have a headache that felt like a hundred construction workers were drilling into his skull? Why did any movement of his left arm cause spasms of intense pain to shoot along it? Why was it dark? oh. His eyes were closed. That... yeah. Connor opened his eyes and tried to sit up. Painful. He held back a cry, because now that he was conscious and his muddled thoughts were beginning to clear, he knew that the noises he was hearing were the two dinosaurs. The best thing would be to try and get out of the way. But he wasn't sure where the dinosaurs were, and, more importantly, he couldn't really move. His arm and head weren't the only parts of him that hurt - his back and his right leg were painful too. Connor could hear shooting now. That was interesting. He'd be more upset that the ARC team was here if it didn't mean that they were rescuing him. Connor tried to drag himself across the grass towards the edge of the building he could see, and gasped. Agony. Dark. He was getting tired of falling unconscious, honestly.

* * *

The ceratopsian and the raptors were sedated, finally, though the bigger herbivore had taken more than the raptors in tranquilizers to sedate. Abby had immediately run to Connor's side, gently touching his shoulder, then pressing her fingers against his neck. She held her breath. A pulse. Seeing him unmoving, hearing that cry and then watching him fall under again, had been horrible. She'd been half convinced he was about to die, as the dangerous dinosaurs stomped close to his fragile human body.

"Connor. Please be okay?"

* * *

Connor blinked open his eyes. A familiar face smiled at him, and as he came to, he realized that his head was resting in Abby's lap, his arm cradle against his body and his leg propped on a pile of jackets.

"Abby."

"Connor! You're.. you're okay! i was so worried..."

"I don't... I remember entering the nursing home but... after I... said hello, I don't... It's all blank. What happened?" He was struggling to keep panic out of his voice. He also did not want to mention his mum. One thing at a time - he supposed he'd have to explain why he was here at all. Soon-ish.

"It's alright, Conn. Well, it's not great, but one of the nurses from the home checked you over. He said that temporary memory loss isn't unheard of."

"But what happened?" He asked, almost plaintively. He needed to know, to understand, otherwise how would he know what to say or to do?

"I'm probably not meant to say but, according to the nurse, you took on the raptor with nothin' but a fire poker, Conn. You just didn't expect to be knocked out by a ceratopsian dino." Abby still sounded shaky, and he raised his good arm to gently stroke her cheek.

"Hey, it's alrigh', 'm fine, see? I've 'ad worse than a few broken bones before, Abbs."

"I know." A hard look entered her gaze and he considered attempting to run away. What had he done this time? Almost as if in answer, Abby continued, "Why the hell didn't you tell me where you were going?! The only reason we found you was because the anomaly detector picked it up in time."

"What d'ya mean?"

"The anomaly closed a few seconds after we got the alarm, Connor. You should've called me, or told me..."

"i was... embarrassed." Boy, his head hurt. He was trying his best to not move at all to avoid the pain, but it still was there, throbbing.

"About what?"

"Me mum. That's why I w's 'ere. She has Alzheimer's. Half the time she doesn't recognize me, others she remembers what i looked like when i was younger but forgets that I've grown, and even when she does know who I am, it's horrible."

"Oh... Connor..." She said softly, stoking his bruised cheek gently. He could almost pretend that the look in her eyes was loving, rather than just the caring of a close friend.

"I just... I didn't want you to think badly of me, that I just up and left 'er in a nursin' 'ome so i could galivant around in London with dinosaurs, or something like tha'..." He mumbled, eyes dark. Abby sighed and pulled him into a tight hug. Despite loving the comforting, and the silent reassurance and acceptance was brilliant and made him love her more, his ribs weren't especially happy about the turn of events, and protested. He tried to hold it in but a small squeak at a sharp pain made Abby release him immediately.

"We would never think that of you, Connor. You provide for her as best you, or anyone else, can, and you have nothing to be ashamed of. You should've told me, though. I promise, I'd never judge you harshly on your family..."

"Don't. I just... don't tell me about your life out of pity for me, Abbs. It's not pity I want... ugh... my 'ead hurts... erm... Why am I lying down with me head in your lap?"

"Connor, stop talking for a sec, yeah? It's not pity, you idiot - I care about you a lot, and I think that..." She took a deep breath. "I want us to trust each other. We do, right? So if I tell you about my past, you'll tel me more about yours, okay?" She blinked. "Erm, you were nearly trampled by a ceratopsian and some raptors? We're just waiting on the ambulance to get here..."

"No! No, please, I want to... I was going to stay at a hotel nearby and visit mum at least once a day for the next three days, even if she doesn't... doesn't know it's me, try and get her to move around and participate and engage in the activities and stuff like that and..." She placed her finger on his lips.

"I understand, Conn. Really. You love her, yeah? But would she be happy to know that you didn't go to hospital when you got injured, just to spend time with her? I think that like any parent, your mum would make you first priority. And we'll both come back here once you're better and visit her together, okay?" Abby told Connor, stroking his cheek. There was a bruise under his eye and she ghosted her thumb over the black-and-blue skin lightly. His eyes were wide, and partly confused and hopeful.

"When..." He swallowed, eyes shuttering closed for a moment before he opened them and looked right at her, "when you say together, do you mean, *together*? Or?... I mean, I don't expect anythin' and that would be silly but me mum would... I mean if she recognizes me and remembers who you are because I've told 'er about you..." He flushed, which was a slight improvement on his current pallor. "I, erm, I mean if she does tha', she'll expect tha' if we're there together it means something... and I... ow.. ow... erm, I don't think I c'n really take you assuring her that we're not together under any circumstances so maybe it'd be best if I go alone anyways, next time..." He was surprised that Abby let him get all of that out - usually she interrupted his babbling in some way. But this time she let him finished before she quirked an eyebrow, smiled, and then leaned over him and pressed her lips gently to his in a kiss that took his breath away. When she broke the kiss to sit up straighter and smile down at him, she found his eyes half-lidded and his expression one of wonder and pure and innocent happiness. IT was enough to make her kiss him again, because he was good at it and she did love him, and it wasn't just today that made her realize it, but it did make her admit it to him, because she'd realized and admitted it to herself, in her mind, a while ago. She wasn't sure quite how or when she'd fallen in love with him - maybe from the moment she saw him, as she knew it was for him, but she just hadn't recognized what it was at that point. Who knows. But today made her realize that life was short and it was better to be together as long as life would let them, instead of dithering and wibbling it and never getting together at all. Their happiness was more important than her ingrained fears or his self-doubt.

The second time, despite being in pain, Connor returned the kiss instead of just accepting it meekly, and it was even more amazing than the first.

This was what falling in love felt like?

"I love you, Connor Temple. But you are a right idiot sometimes." She whispered, and was answered with a bright grin from him.

SHe'd never expected to fall in love, never really understood it until now, and it was mind-blowing. But first things first, her Connor was injured.

"Where's that bloody ambulance?!" She snapped, startling a couple of rock doves into flight.


End file.
